Last week I picked up this little book, inside some good things. Here is just a little small portion of it.




“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”  (Ps. 23:1)

 

“Come with me to the world’s most oppressive prison.  Just ask the inmates; they will tell you.  They are overworked and underfed…No prison is so populated, no prison so oppressive, and what’s more, no prison is so permanent.  Most inmates never leave.  They never get released…The name of the prison?  You’ll see it over the entrance.  Rainbowed over the gate are four cast-iron letters that spell out its name:  W-A-N-T.

 

“They don’t want much, mind you.  They want just one thing.  One new job.  One new car.  One new house.  One new spouse.  They don’t want much.  They just want one.” (Max Lucado, Traveling Light)

 

Max has pretty much hit it on the head.  We just want one thing, don’t we?  What I want is probably quite different than what you want.  And what you want is different than that for which your friend wishes.  And when I get that one thing – that very special thing that I’m wanting – am I happy?  Yes.  If truth be told, I am.  That is, until I find out that somewhere, someone has invented a better gizmo than I bought.  Or until the car no longer smells new, or until the new model year comes out and I like the looks of it even better.  Then I’m stuck.  And what I wanted is not as fun anymore – and it creates the beginnings of an ache in me to want again.  Max continued: “If your happiness comes from something you deposit, drive, drink or digest, then face it – you are in prison, the prison of want.  The good news is you have a visitor and your visitor has a message that can get you paroled…look across the table at the psalmist David.  He motions for you to lean forward.  ‘I have a secret to tell you,’ he whispers, ‘the secret of satisfaction.  The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want’ (Ps. 23:1). 

 

“David has found the pasture where discontent goes to die...as if he is saying, ‘What I have in God is greater than what I don’t have in life.
 

“Let me remind you of two biblical truths:

YOUR STUFF ISN’T YOURS: Ask any coroner.  Ask any embalmer.  Ask any funeral home director.  ‘Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, he departs.  He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.’  (Eccl. 5:15) 

IT’S NOT YOU.  Who you are has nothing to do with the clothes you wear or the car you drive.  Jesus said, ‘Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.’  (Lk. 12:15)

 

Are you a prisoner in this prison?  No?  That’s good, if that’s what you think.  But let me pose to you the two questions that will really put a clear vision in your mind, one that Max posed in his book: “What is the one thing separating you from joy?  How do you fill in this blank: ‘I will be happy when ______________’?”

 

“Now, with your answer firmly in mind, answer this: if your ship never comes in, if your dream never comes true, if the situation never changes, could you be happy?  If not, then you are sleeping in the cold cell of discontent.  You are in prison.  And you need to know what you have in your Shepherd.”

 

It is interesting that David’s declaration of contentedness is not coupled with verses two or three of Psalm 23, but is the logical extension of the first phrase as if saying: “The Lord is my shepherd, therefore I shall not want.”  David’s lack of wanting had nothing to do with what he possessed, except for the shepherd himself.  If we have God, can anything else compare? 

 

If we think that having something will make us happy, then we have a false god to whom we bow.

but what about this slant :  "I want that one digestable thing that is elusive --> my prescription of medications that I am not able to buy due to reduced income"?   or "I want to buy groceries but the reduced income forces me to wait until another week or two"?

.... without either of these two wants critical things could happen

yes ... so many of us get caught up on wants but sometimes our wants really can impact us and cause harm


over the decades I really have been forced to make choices with food, shortly after college I did not have enough income to buy groceries on a regular basis {lost weight too}, then after getting married again food became a problem when another could not live within a budget so in order to have enough grocery money I started cutting out meals for myself - lunch became the first to go (while ae never ate breakfast but almost always bought a lunch at work ... in the beginning he fixed his own lunch but that soon faded as his co-workers began eating out). gradually we ended up going grocery shopping for a week but then after reviewing the budget after some of his expenditures those same groceries had to last the month (so the pattern soon became : buy for one week but only buy once a month)

funny thing was that my uncle was not much better in that same pattern of grocery shopping  .... unless it was something he wanted

yes Americans are too caught up on wants and cannot see that people in other countries do not have the same luxuries . You don't have to travel far to see this ... sometimes it is even hidden within the folds of Miss Liberty's Dress  {here in America} or even in some European countries {HB's} before even looking at what we classify as "Third World Countries".



Sewing

great post 1of7.